“Tokyo” Rosenthal snuck into Yankee Stadium for 8 years on a fake press pass...took these photos

Arnie “Tokyo” Rosenthal faked his way into Yankee Stadium for 8 seasons (learning how to shoot his SLR camera in the process). This is his story:

New York, NY -- New York Yankees management would confirm that among the most familiar faces at Yankee Stadium between 1977-1984 were Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent, Ron Guidry and Tokyo Rosenthal.

So just who is Arnie “Tokyo” Rosenthal? For eight consecutive Major League seasons, this Valley Stream, NY, native (now a resident of Chapel Hill, NC), who envisioned and dreamed of himself as a baseball media broadcaster, beat reporter and photographer, “schemed and tricked” his way into the House That Ruth Built with full access to the Stadium’s field, press box, dugouts, clubhouses and even top level complimentary seats in the stands. Over that time period, he recorded very few actual player interviews and filed very few stories, but he and his attractive girlfriend/soon-to-be-wife took hundreds of photos of players, managers and coaches that have never been seen by anyone. That is until now.

On Monday, November 16, 2015, Rosenthal’s book, A Fauxtogrpher’s Yankee Stadium Memoir, will be released and available through Book Baby, Amazon/Kindle, Barnes & Noble and I Books among other retailers ($9.95). In it he not only relates his “secret story” of fooling the Yankees highly-efficient and beloved assistant to the head of public relations into issuing him media access passes every season from 1977 through 1984, but also using these passes and comp tickets to “entertain” family and friends on the field, in the press room and in the stands.

It all started in 1977 when Tokyo actually became the director of An obscure and little watched Manhattan Cable TV show called “Sports ’77.” One day that summer the host of the show, Robert Leeds, requested that Tokyo accompany him to Yankee Stadium with a crew to tape interviews with the players. Everything went so smoothly and easily that when Leeds asked Tokyo to go back up to the Stadium a couple of weeks later with a crew and a substitute host, he jumped at the opportunity. Then Leeds opened the lock that forever changed Tokyo Rosenthal’s life – – he gave him the name of the woman at the Yankees, along with her personal phone number, who approved all media credential requests. So Tokyo completed the call and all arrangements – – and it turned out he had made a friend with the Yankees who would be his “go-to” person for the next eight years.” In fact, by the time that August of 1977 came along, “Sports ‘77” was cancelled, but Tokyo continued to use the program’s name to secure Yankees press credentials that year.

Next came the photographs – – hundreds of them over the years that Tokyo shot mostly while standing on the lush green grass of the Yankee Stadium field and from the photographers’ box. Photos of Yankees and of visiting team players that have never been published before. Action and posed and relaxing. Billy Martin, Bucky Dent, Goose Gossage, Davey Lopes, Dick Howser, Thurman Munson, Jerry Remy, Graig Nettles and many, many more. Tokyo proudly says that in all of the time he “covered” the Yankees, no players, managers, coaches, front office personnel, grounds crew members, security officers or bat boys ever questioned what he was doing, who he was doing it for or why he was there.

"That was a time of, shall we say, relaxed security,” recalls Marty Appel, the Yankees’ PR official from 1968-77 (he left before the ’77 season started) and author of “Pinstripe Empire. “Today, Tokyo Rosenthal wouldn’t get closer to Yankee Stadium than Weehawken, New Jersey. But his end product is definitely worth visiting: Yankees history before digital photography and a visit to some great memories of the past. Enjoy the time travel.”

Rosenthals’s other passion and talent is music, as he is a successful songwriter, recording artist, singer and performer whose newest album, “Afterlife” was released in the US and in Europe in September 2015. His music and talents have been compared highly to superstars like James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Don Henley.

Over 100 never before published pictures, from the late 1970's New York Yankee dynasty years, are contained in the new publication, "A Fauxtographer's Yankee Stadium Memoir". Author and photographer, Arnie "Tokyo" Rosenthal, has assembled the best pictures of Yankee personnel of that era and their opponents from his personal collection. Thurman Munson, Reggie Jackson, Bucky Dent, Lou Piniella, Catfish Hunter, Goose Gossage , Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and others are all included. Plus the best of the Yankee opponents such as Nolan Ryan, Carl Yastremski, Don Zimmer, Rod Carew, Mark Fidrych and many more. Also World Series locker room celebrations including 1977 right after Jackson's three home run game. These are off beat pictures, actions shots, locker room hi-jinks, portraits, being made public for the first time after being stored away for over 35 years. An incredible find and discovery for any Major League Baseball fan. Not just The Yankees but The Red Sox, The Orioles, The Tigers, The Twins, The Angels, among others.

Rosenthal prefaces the pictures with a hilarious story of how he came to get a full time press pass without any real credentials. It's a story that will have you laughing and anxious to see the photos as he learned on the job how to shoot baseball with no real exit plan for the photos.

Any Yankee or Major League Baseball fan will get a kick out of this book and appreciate the exclusive photos of baseball heroes contained within.